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Bev

I have been taking Tramadol for 10 years, along with some depression medications. & have been given them by the same
doctor, and not ONE word about the possibility of bad reactions. I have had brain
Zapping, & now I know reason why.

Vince

Minnesota

I believe this is a must-read for all patients who are receiving medications; that is, combinations of medications that may or may not be checked for their interactions. This is a frightening dilemma that is worth the effort to correct. Please do your part to correct this for all of us who need to maintain on a medication regimen.

"Top Screwups doctors make" well worth the read, either buy it or get it from your library.

Eileen Hawkins

Michigan

I do check the subject matter of your email information. I did order this book through an Inter-Library Loan from our local library when it first came out. I do agree that the font and text of the book is very light and difficult to read. I have ordered the book again from the ILL to review, as the information contained in it was needed for we patients who have multiple health problems and take a number of prescription meds as well as OTC supplements, some suggested by specialist drs. I tried five different statins during the years cardiologists and drs. insisted this was a cure-all for cardiac problems. NOT! All five put me down on the couch with many side effects until I had myself tested by a NeuroPhysicist who declared I was probably one of the small 2% number of patients who should not take them. I told my drs. I was not going to take them again.

I have had to advocate for myself, one of our son’s, and my husband during serious health problems for many years. And have run up against drs. who appreciated the knowledge I gained by educating myself through reading and checking the Internet for information. And also others who do NOT appreciate patients who ask a lot of questions or tell the dr. they had found info somewhere other than them.

I have had other drs. & nurses who praised me for my knowledge and prep for an appt. by making typed questions and lists of meds in my computer which can be updated as necessary. So I am an involved and rather knowledgable patient and some nurses tell me if all patients would be more involved, it would make their work of preparing them for the drs. visit easier.

At 80+ years old, I feel some treatment I experienced from drs. and hospitals over the years, I am lucky to still be upright and living my life.

My primary dr. once told me “You read too much!” I have been known to challenge him and if this happens in this current times, some drs. will tell their patient “If you’re not going to do what I tell you to, then you’ll have to go somewhere else!” I’m sure that can be overdone that the patient leans on the dr. too much, but with the reduction of time that even insurance pays for, the drs. are finding their somewhat lucrative profession in the past is no longer the case. I would imagine a lot of them are ready to throw in the towel, and some do, and others find that running an office and having so many hospitals putting curbs on their participation in their patients care in favor of having “hospitalists” outsourced from some place else instead of the local drs. following their patients while in the hospital, it is hard on the patient to be taken care of by someone who has never seen them before and our primary physicians hands are tied to seeing us as infrequently as the insurance and other factors dictate. And those Electronic Records are a joke. There are so many mistakes, that even getting the hard copies of them, doesn’t give much info that the layperson can understand and I’m sure there are things in there that they say they’ve done during the patient’s stay that get charged for when some of it did not happen. That’s why patients should ask for itemized bills when they leave to be sent to them and check the charges. It will blow your mind in some cases. Hospitals like to build buildings and enlarge their campuses, but then restrict hiring better people who do the work of taking care of patients. There are uncalled for delays in reading and getting test records out, and excuses that they are so busy they are overloaded.

I usually obtain hard copies of all my medical records and check them for info for my questions, then write down all my info at each office visit with list of current meds, dosages, who ordered them and other info to keep current, and update this info in my computer to make printouts for the nurse. And they still make mistakes as viewed on the ‘encounter’ report given at the end of the visit. I am only one patient, but if all the mishaps that have happened over the years to me would be joined with many from other patients, one would have to wonder how any of us survive the care or hospital visit, let alone surgeries.

BUT, if you complain or try to get an appt. to ask about another problem in between your regularly scheduled dr. dictated ones, the dr. does not call you anymore, that would be his assistant or the receptionist relaying info to or from the dr. And oftimes, they forget something you have asked about. If you have multiple drs. sometimes, they say, “We’ll let Dr. So & So cover that with you.”

Soon you get the feeling that you would be better off finding a new dr. NOT SO EASY! If a dr. thinks you are too much to take care of, they would probably like to pass you off to someone else. That has happened here in our small town and it’s very hard to find or get an appt. with someone else.

Obamacare has not been the ‘boon’ that so many people thought it would be. I do not subscribe to it. I keep my old Medicare Plan, and BCBS which have been very fair with me for a long time. When they start changing the insurance, it usually leads to higher premiums and less benefits. Don’t let them fool you. I know of what I speak because I myself have had serious health problems, some of which drs. tried to ignore until they got more serious than need be before finally listening to me. I do not respect any dr. who won’t listen. I will respect one that will be honest if he can’t take care of a problem and is willing to refer me to the right people. It’s a crap shoot whatever way you look at it. Sorry this has been long, but we live in a much more complicated world today and even with all the technology available, there takes a lot of time to be sure things get taken care of.

Should be required reading. Especially by Doctors

Phyllis

VA

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